What to Watch Wednesday, September 9: The Paper Season 2, NFL Kickoff & MasterChef Finale

Wednesday has a little bit of everything, but two very different returns are going to dominate the conversation. The Paper is back with its entire second season on Peacock, while the NFL officially opens its 2026 regular season with a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and defending champion Seattle Seahawks. Seven months after Seattle beat New England in Super Bowl LX, apparently the schedule makers decided everybody should just run it back immediately.

There is plenty happening away from those two headliners. MasterChef begins its Season 16 finale on FOX, Alone reaches the end of its World Championship season on History, Next Gen NYC wraps Season 2 on Bravo, The Shards closes out its first season on Hulu, and Apple TV launches the new thriller Last Seen. So yes, tonight is busy enough without NBC dropping the NFL into the middle of a Wednesday.

TV Cave Top Pick: The Paper Is Back in Print

The staff of the Toledo Truth Teller has survived its first season, won some journalism awards and, naturally, become confident enough to believe they know what they're doing.

All 10 episodes of The Paper Season 2 are streaming today on Peacock. The mockumentary from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman brings back Domhnall Gleeson as editor-in-chief Ned Sampson alongside Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Tim Key, Ramona Young, Eric Rahill, Duane Shepard Sr., Alex Edelman and Oscar Nuñez.

Season 2 picks up after the Truth Teller's success at the Ohio Journalism Awards, which leaves Ned looking for something bigger to chase. His attention eventually lands on a powerful local private club, while the newsroom continues dealing with its own shifting relationships and the uncomfortable realization that these people may actually be becoming competent reporters.

That's enough to make The Paper our TV Cave Top Pick, and yes, The TV Cave may be slightly biased toward a comedy about people trying to run a media outlet while everything around them goes sideways. We cannot imagine why that premise would feel relatable.

Wednesday, September 9 TV Schedule

Time (ET)	Show	Network/Streaming	Tonight
Streaming	The Paper	Peacock	Season 2 premiere; all 10 episodes
Streaming	Last Seen	Apple TV	Two-episode series premiere
Streaming	Diarra From Detroit	Paramount+	Season 2 finale
Streaming	The Hardacres	BritBox	Season 2 finale
Streaming	Band of Brothers: Legacy	HBO Max	Documentary premiere
Streaming	NFL Play Action	Paramount+	Weekly NFL series premiere
1:10 PM	Twins at Tigers	Regional networks / MLB.TV	MLB afternoon game
3:05 PM	Blue Jays at Athletics	Regional networks / MLB.TV	MLB afternoon game
3:45 PM	Cardinals at Giants	Regional networks / MLB.TV	MLB afternoon game
7:00 PM	Football Night in America	NBC / Peacock	NFL Kickoff pregame
8:00 PM	MasterChef	FOX	Season 16 finale, Part 1
8:00 PM	Big Brother	CBS / Paramount+	New Season 28 episode
8:00 PM	AEW Dynamite	TBS	Live from Athens, Georgia
8:20 PM	Patriots at Seahawks	NBC / Peacock	NFL Kickoff; Super Bowl LX rematch
9:00 PM	Alone	History	Season 13 finale, “Worlds Apart”
9:00 PM	Next Gen NYC	Bravo	Season 2 finale, “Lady and the Train”
9:00 PM	The Shards	Hulu	Season 1 finale
9:00 PM	Expedition X	Discovery	New episode
9:00 PM	Guy's Grocery Games	Food Network	New episode
9:00 PM	Tyler Perry's The Oval	BET	New Season 7 episode
9:00 PM	Body Cam	Investigation Discovery	New episode
9:00 PM	ER: Caught on Camera	TLC	New episode
10:00 PM	The Ark	Syfy	S3E7, “I Have Nightmares”
10:00 PM	Botched Homes	HGTV	New episode
10:00 PM	How to Catch a Dirtbag	Discovery	New episode
10:00 PM	Resolve to Solve With Miles O'Brien	PBS	Docuseries finale

The NFL Season Starts on a Wednesday

No, you did not lose track of the week. The National Football League begins its 107th season tonight at 8:20 PM ET on NBC and Peacock, with Seattle hosting New England at Lumen Field. The Wednesday start is unusual, but the matchup couldn't be much bigger: it is a rematch of Super Bowl LX, which Seattle won seven months ago to capture the franchise's second Lombardi Trophy.

Seattle begins its championship defense with quarterback Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba still leading the offense, while New England returns with Drake Maye at quarterback. The Patriots will be without running back TreVeyon Henderson tonight because of an ankle injury, leaving Rhamondre Stevenson in line for a larger role.

NBC's coverage begins at 7 PM ET with Football Night in America before kickoff at 8:20. Thursday then gives us another unusual NFL event when the 49ers and Rams play the league's first regular-season game in Australia. Apparently Week 1 decided normal scheduling was boring.

MasterChef Begins Its Season 16 Finale

While football takes over NBC, FOX begins deciding who will become America's next MasterChef.

MasterChef airs Finale Part 1 tonight at 8 PM ET, with the remaining three home cooks beginning their final challenge. Each finalist must build a three-course menu inspired by their background and culinary point of view, with the $250,000 prize and Season 16 title waiting at the end.

The finale continues next Wednesday, September 16, so don't expect Gordon Ramsay to hand somebody a trophy tonight and send everyone home. FOX is stretching the final showdown across two weeks, because apparently these people haven't experienced enough stress yet.

And really, preparing a three-course meal while Gordon Ramsay watches your every move sounds difficult enough. Doing it while knowing millions of people are also watching feels unnecessarily personal.

Apple TV Launches Last Seen

Apple TV has Wednesday's biggest brand-new scripted series with Last Seen, a six-episode Australian thriller starring Patrick Brammall.

Brammall plays Ian Ridley, a former police detective whose daughter disappeared 11 years earlier. Now working as a police dispatcher, Ian answers a distress call from a teenage girl and becomes convinced the voice belongs to his missing daughter. Whether he's finally found the lead he's spent more than a decade waiting for — or is hearing what he desperately wants to hear becomes the engine of the mystery.

The series also stars Maxine Peake, Brendan Cowell, Daniel Henshall, Zahra Newman, Jessica Wren and newcomer Chloe Jean Lourdes. The first two episodes premiere today, followed by one new installment each Wednesday through October 7.

That weekly schedule may actually be a blessing. A missing-person thriller is exactly the kind of show where “I'll watch one more episode” somehow turns into looking at the clock at 2:17 in the morning.

Alone Reaches the End of Its World Championship

History's Alone reaches its Season 13 finale at 9 PM ET with “Worlds Apart,” bringing the show's World Championship edition to its conclusion.

This season began with 10 experienced survivalists from around the globe dropped into the Arctic Circle, including former Alone participants and international competitors. By last week's “Subzero,” only three remained. Tonight those final survivalists push through the closing stretch as the $500,000 prize finally comes within reach.

There is something wonderfully straightforward about Alone. No alliances. No voting blocs. No elaborate reality-show twists. Just you, the Arctic and the slow realization that perhaps the grocery store is one of humanity's greatest inventions.

Next Gen NYC Wraps Season 2

Bravo closes out Next Gen NYC Season 2 at 9 PM ET with “Lady and the Train.” The finale brings Hudson back to New York, which forces Charlie to finally address everything that has happened with Ariana. Riley also celebrates Kandi's Broadway milestone while continuing to adjust to changes within her family, and a moment involving Ariana and Charlie gives the rest of the group something new to discuss because this friend group was clearly suffering from a shortage of things to talk about.

The episode follows an all-day Bravo marathon of Season 2 beginning at 1 PM, so anybody who somehow missed most of the season and has eight free hours can apparently fix that problem immediately.

The Shards Ends Its First Season

Hulu's The Shards reaches its Season 1 finale tonight at 9 PM ET, closing the first chapter of the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel. The series has spent its season mixing teenage obsession, paranoia and violence against the backdrop of early-1980s Los Angeles, and tonight brings those threads to their breaking point. The finale arrives at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET on Hulu in the U.S., with Disney+ carrying the series internationally.

That makes 9 PM especially ridiculous tonight: Alone finale, Next Gen NYC finale, The Shards finale and, oh right, the NFL season happening on NBC.

September television has officially arrived.